How do you clean your bike?

stage by stage , my ritual is once a week , hose her down then use duck smart earth remover (smells nice!)pain in the aris getting in the nooks and crannies and always seen to end up with grease covered cloths/sponges, hose down again then shammy dry, next GT85 all moving parts /joints (and have to rub down again to get rid of spray spots/drips ect) then Fenwicks Stealth chain lube to finish.
Questions are am i being long winded and doing it the hard way,how do you do the nooks and crannies(without covering everything in chain grease) and finally once a week or once a month enough or god forbid after every ride!?

ps its a carbon fibre bike if that makes a difference.

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Raleigh[1667 posts]3 years ago

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Clean my carbon bike... when it gets dirty.

Cut the habndles off plastic bags and thread them through tht echain to pick up grit, surprising how much comes out that way.

the most critical part of the bike to clean is the drivetrain - if you want to get the longest possible life span out of your cassette, chain and chainrings. I wipe these down thoroughly with a dry cloth after each ride to get any grit and sticky muck off. I clean the drivetrain properly once a week or every two weeks depending on weather conditions and mileage using a detergent (used Fenwick for a long time, excellent stuff; but now use No Nonsense Degreaser from Screwfix - works equally well and at £7 for 5L an absolute bargain). I use a round head fairly stiff paint brush which I dip into the degreaser and then work my way round the chain and cassette, rinsing with plenty of warm water - takes me a few minutes. Then hose the chain to remove traces of degreaser, and wipe the chain dry with a clean cloth - try not to leave the chain and cassette dripping wet to airdry as this will encourage rust if the air temperature is anywhere near average UK summer levels...

I also clean the brake blocks and rims with a soapy solution to avoid any grit/grime wearing down the rims excessively - check nothing is embedded in the brake blocks.

I do not spend a lot of time getting my bike super shiny, I get more pleasure from a smoothly running drivetrain.

Chain in a jar of White Spirit, Cassette GT85'd and cleaned in all the nooks and crannies with a rag and a strip of rag to go inbetween the sprockets. Whip the chainset off and GT85/rag it until it shines, unless it's REALLY bad in which case I "paint" it with White spirit and that usually does it!